It Takes A Village

Someone once said that it “takes a village” to raise a child. Nothing could be truer than this quote when you have a child with additional needs! I was lucky enough when our daughter was diagnosed on the autism spectrum in 1993 that I knew ONE other person who had a child on the autism spectrum. At that time, it was 1 out of every 10,000 births! I went out to lunch with this mom (Julie) and we each shared our history with lots of tears, lots of supportive words, and it was the start of a beautiful 25 year friendship. Of course, my husband, our other two very young children, and our families were there to listen and be supportive. But our families all lived so far away that no one really knew what our day-to-day struggles were. And who really wants to get on a long distance phone call and complain, explain how scared you were, or to cry. As we were trying to assemble our multidisciplinary team of speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, behavioral therapists, and physical therapists, we met some incredible individuals who became a part of “our village”. I felt very comfortable sharing my thoughts and feelings, asking for support, and started to feel like we really had a team to help us and then to pay it forward by helping every other children and their families along the way. This is my definition of what a village is! Find “your village” and then help the next family you meet with a child with additional needs.